1. Field
The disclosed and claimed concept relates generally to handheld electronic devices and, more particularly, to a method of learning a context for a character segment during text input.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous types of handheld electronic devices are known. Examples of such handheld electronic devices include, for instance, personal data assistants (PDAs), handheld computers, two-way pagers, cellular telephones, and the like. Many handheld electronic devices also feature wireless communication capability, although many such handheld electronic devices are stand-alone devices that are functional without communication with other devices.
In certain circumstances, a handheld electronic device having a keypad of Latin letters can be employed to enter text in languages that are not based upon Latin letters. For instance, pinyin Chinese is a type of phonetic Chinese “alphabet” which enables transcription between Latin text and Standard Mandarin text. Pinyin Chinese can thus enable the input of Standard Mandarin characters by entering Latin letters. A “pin” is a phonetic sound, oftentimes formed from a plurality of Latin letters, and each pin is associated with one or more Standard Mandarin characters. More than four hundred pins exist, and each pin typically corresponds with a plurality of different Standard Mandarin characters. While methods and devices for text input such as pinyin Chinese text input have been generally effective for their intended purposes, such methods and devices have not been without limitation.
Generally each Standard Mandarin character is itself a Chinese word. Moreover, a given Standard Mandarin character in combination with one or more other Standard Mandarin characters can constitute a different word. An exemplary pin could be phonetically characterized as “da”, which would be input on a Latin keyboard by actuating the <D> key followed by an actuation of the <A> key. However, the pin “da” corresponds with a plurality of different Chinese characters. Moreover, the pin “da” can be a single syllable represented by a character within a Chinese word having a plurality of syllables, with each syllable being represented by a Standard Mandarin character. As such, substantial difficulty exits in determining which specific Standard Mandarin character should be output in response to an input of a pin when the pin corresponds with a plurality of Standard Mandarin characters.
Numerous methodologies have been developed to assist in generating a character interpretation for a series of pins that have been input on a device. For instance, an exemplary algorithm would be the “simple maximum matching” algorithm, which is one algorithm among many, both simple and complex, of the well known Maximum Matching Algorithm. A given device may have stored thereon a number of Chinese words comprised of one or more Chinese characters, and the algorithm(s) executed on the device may employ such linguistic data to develop the best possible character interpretation of a series of input pins.
In response to the inputting of a sequence of pins, the aforementioned simple maximum matching algorithm might generate a character interpretation comprising the largest Chinese words, i.e., the words having the greatest quantity of Standard Mandarin characters. For example, the algorithm might, as a first step, obtain the largest Chinese word having characters that correspond with the pins at the beginning of the pin sequence. As a second step, the algorithm might obtain the largest Chinese word having characters that correspond with the pins in the sequence that immediately follow the previous word. This is repeated until Chinese words have been obtained for all of the pins in the input sequence. The result is then output.
Numerous other algorithms are employed individually or in combination with the objective of providing as a proposed output a character interpretation that matches what was originally intended by the user. It would be desired to provide an improved method and handheld electronic device that facilitate the input of text.
Similar numerals refer to similar parts throughout the specification.